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Cost-benefit study indicates bike facilities yield big savings

A new study titled Costs and Benefits of Bicycling Investments indicates that creating a bicycle-friendly infrastructure results in significant long-term benefits to a city. Thomas Gotschi of the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Zurich in Switzerland conducted the study.

By 2040, [bicycle infrastructure] investments in the range of $138 to $605 million will result in health care cost savings of $388 to $594 million, fuel savings of $143 to $218 million, and savings in value of statistical lives of $7 to $12 billion. The benefit-cost ratios for health care and fuel savings are between 3.8 and 1.2 to 1, and an order of magnitude larger when value of statistical lives is used.